Sometimes living in the Netherlands can give me a sort of complex. Yes, the Dutch are know for tulips, windmills and drugs, but definitely not for fashion icons and/or music. But then I remembered that one of the best bands from the sixties, and the coolest girl from the sixties are actually Dutch! I’m talking about Shocking Blue, the Dutch beat group from The Hague and their lead singer Mariska Veres. The band started in 1967, in 1968 Mariska joined them, in 1969 they recorded Venus, and scored a number one hit in the US. The band split up in 1975. Unfortunately Mariska died in 2006 because of cancer.

Their music and Mariska’s unique voice still sounds great after more than 40 (!) years. Mariska is to me in the same league as style icons like Nancy Sinatra and Marianne Faithfull. Some great pictures of her and the band are added to this post. If you want to know how to get great hair like her, there is a simple solution: wear a wig like she did (she was always very open about that). She hated being seen as a sex symbol and was never the standard bad girl of rock: she never smoked and she did not like alcohol (favorite drink: tea).

View Mariska in action (wearing a beautiful coat) in the video for Mighty Joe (we all know Venus, but they had so many great songs, I wanted to show something different). Just don’t pay any attention to the weird ostrich in the first 15 seconds of the video.